BUILDING A BRIDGE

After years of anticipation, work finally is under way on construction of a Mississippi River bridge to replace the span at Cape Girardeau that has carried countless numbers of travelers between Missouri and Illinois for seven decades.

The work, which began Wednesday, isn't that noticeable. Only a bit of bulldozing is being done on the Missouri side in preparation for construction of a coffer dam so that one of the bridge's piers can be built. Nevertheless, it is significant because it marks the start of construction of a major highway improvement for Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois.

Coupled with a new cross-city highway from Interstate 55 and a new bridge approach in East Cape Girardeau, upwards of $90 million in federal and state money will go toward the project. That is the largest single expenditure on a highway project in the immediate Cape Girardeau County since Interstate 55 was built in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Spanning the Mississippi with a bridge wide enough to carry four lanes of traffic is no simple task, and it won't be done overnight. It will take up to four years and as many as 75 workers during some phases to build the cable-supported span. The best hope is that it is finished late in 2000. But the river is unpredictable, and high water that could slow down early phases of construction can be expected. That could delay opening of the bridge, which will cost $50 million and be called the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge in honor of the late congressman, who was instrumental in securing federal funding.

The bridge will stretch some 1,150 feet across the river from two towers and have separate 460-foot spans on either side. When finished, the existing span, which is safe but too narrow, will be torn down.

Construction of the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge will be watched with interest as the turn of the century approaches. It promises to provide a modern link between Missouri and Illinois, one that will serve the traveling public well for many years to come.